- - " 


E 440 


.5 


.M89 


Copy 1 



^, iO 



0_ 



j/y-.rirduni^td- 



SPEECH 



* OF 



HON. GEORGE W. tOODWARD, 



DELIVERED 



At the Grea4 Uniou Meeting jii Independence Sqjsar®, F^sIadeii>io)ia, 
December IZih, 1860« 



0. 



THE DEMOCRATIC PLATE 



ADOPTED BY THE 



STATE CO.VTENTION AT HAERISBURG, 



On ISs€ ITllli Jiine, 1863, 




PHILADELPHIA: 

PRINTED AT THE AQE OFFICE, 
1863, 



I 



%\ 



IHJf 



DEMOCRATIC STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE, 1 

PHILADELrHlA, SePT. 'Q, 1863. J 

A few words will state why the following speech of the Hon. Georo-e W, 
Woodward is now republished by the Committee. It was delivered at 
Philadelphia, on the 13th of December, 1860, at a town meeting called by 
proclamation of Mayor Henry, setting forth thai "the continuance of our 
National Union is in peril, and the breakitig tip of our Confederacy appears 
to be imminent." The then recent triumph,, at the election in November, 
18.60, of men who opposed all compromise and ridiculed the idea that 
the peace of the country was in danger, had inspired the conservative 
citizens of Philadelphia with apprehensions which subsequent events have 
fully justified. Judge Woodward was among those *who saw clearly the 
perilous condition of our country. Invited to address the town meetino-j he 
did not withhold an earnest, emphatic warning of the evils which it w^as 
not then too late to avert, and he advocated, with all the energy that the 
crisis demanded, the peaceful adjustment of our JSTational difficulties. 

His speech, so appropriate to the occasion and the purpose of its delivery, 
has, since his nomination for Governor, been the subject of constant misrep- 
resentation and misquotation by partisan speakers and writers. In no 
single instance, perhaps, has a complete thought of the author, in his own 
words, been quoted by his assailants. Passages and sentences, garbled, 
distorted and mutilated, are daily oftered to the jjublic, to countenance the 
imputation of opinions to Judge Woodward which Avere never entertained i 
by him, nor by the Democracy of Pennsylvania, of whom he is now the 
candidate. It is often represented, too, as a speech inspired by the ;^arty 
feeling of the pi-escnt time ; but, as has been shown, it was made nearly 
three years ago, before the commencement of the war; it was not addressed 
to a political assemblage ; and there is not even an allusion in it to the party 
of which its author is a member. 



4 



The fuirest and best uav of lacctii...- .1,. n i i . 
... . , , , ^ ^^'' fulsol.oods of which thid speech 

hus been made the suhieet i< ns f.,,. „ •, , spcecii 

of all whn , • ^'"" '''' '" I''^'^' ^^ ^^-'tJ^'" the reach 

:;:::r;::r::.::::;;: :::■;--■- --.- 

;. f,r ^ '^^^''' '^"^^^^^•"•^•"I'ttion^believinrrth'itnn 

la It the WLsdom and foresicrht of -i <t..f.. , 

t. ::;::: :L: r :::;;r ::r"r ^"""'^ ^"'^'' - -"'^^^ 

.,..• 1 ,. . ^''^'^^^"^^'^^- ^^ the conduct of the war, no^v that M-e 
. The <.a„<,.a ,.oa<lo,. .,„ „,„ „,, , ,,,„, ,,,^,,^ ,„,,„„,„,,,„,,„„ J, 
.1. h.o .„c,™c„.. has been ean-ie,, ,,, ,„o.,o „,,„se ..e.-oet H i„. a. „I 
Inne, to pervert ami suppress the truth. ' 

CIIAIiLES J. BIDDLE, a<,i,-mm. 



S r» E E C EC 



or THE 



HON. GEORGE W. WOODWARD, 

Delivered at the Great Union Meeting in Independence Square, 
Philadelphia, 13th December, 1860. 



We have assembled, fellow-citizens, in 
pursuance of the proclamation of the Mayor, 
that we may " counsel together to avert the 
danger which threatens our country." That 
danger is not recent or new. It has a his- 
tory. And we must glance at that — we must 
obtain a clear view of the actual state of the 
crisis, before we can give or receive intelli- 
gent counsel. 

It was announced a few years ago that the 
conflict' which had sprung up in this country 
between free and slave labor was irrepressi- 
ble — that a house divided against itself 
could not stand — that all the States of this 
Union must become free or slave States. 

The meaning of this was, and is, that all 
were to become free States; for the soil and 
climate of a majority of the States are such 
that it never can become the interest of the 
superior race to maintain slavery in them. 
Everybody knows this, and therefore the 
alternative form of the proposition was only 
to give it an appearance of fairness, and a 
little moi'e rhetorical effect. 

The full scope and meaning of the an- 
nouncement are, then, that the citizens of 
the United States are to be totally divested 
of the property they now hold m four or 
five millions of slaves, of the aggregate value 
of many hundred millions of dollars, and 



that the habits and domestic condition of 
the people — their commercial relations, and 
their political rights, in so far as these in- 
terests are connected with the institution of 
slavery — are to undergo a revolution. 

Nor was this prediction the voice of an 
obscure and unhonored prophet, but of a 
citizen whom the people of the free States 
have just distinguished, in a signal manner, 
by conferring on him the highest office they 
had to give. In so far as their votes are to 
be considered as responsive to his announce- 
nient, they are a loud ameu — a solemn an- 
swer, So let it be. 

Whilst it is not to be doubted that multi- 
tudes voted for the President elect with 
other views, and (\\(\ not intend a distinct 
endorsement of his favorite proposition, yet 
as the record is made up, the prophecy and 
the prophet stand approved by a majority 
of the people of the free States. The in- 
exorable exclusion of slave property from 
the common territories, which the Govern- 
ment holds in trust for the people of all the 
States, is a natural and direct step towards 
the grand result of extinguishing slave 
property altogether, and Avas one of the 
record issues of the' late election. This 
policy must be considered as approved also. 
Not that every man who voted for the sue- 



6 



ccssful nominees irieanl to affirm that a 
trustee for several coequal parties has a 
light, in law or, reason, to exclude the 
property of some and admit that of others 
of the parties for wlu-m he holds-but so is 
the record. And .vhilst it is not to be taken 
as expressing the vniverml sense of the 
voters, It does, undoubtedlv, imply that 
vast masses of Northern people do heartily 
approve both of the proposition to n.ake 
a 1 tne. States free, and of beginning by ex- 
cluding slavery from the territories. 
_ The South seems inclined so to accept the 
judgment. She holds tJie property that is 
to be shut out of the territories-that is to 
<^e restricted, cribbed, and confined, more 
and n.ore, until it is finally extinguished. 
J^verywhere in the South the people are be- 
ginnmg to look out for the means of self- 
defence. Could it be expected that they 
would be indifferent to such events as have 
occurred?-that they ^vould stand idle and 
see measures concerted and carried forward 
tor the annihilation, sooner or later, of her 
property in slaves? Such expectations, if 
indulged, were not reasonable. The law of 
self-defence includes rights of property ^s 
well as of person; and it appears to me 
tha. there must be a time, in the progress 
of this conflict, if it be indeed irrepressible I 
when slaveholders may lawfully fall back I 
on their natural rights, and employ in de- 
tenceof their property whatever means of 
protection they possess or can command I 
1 do not agree with them that that time has 
arrnvcd yet; but it would be well for those ' 
who push on this conflict, in whatever form 
to consider that they are hastening on that 
time, and that they Iku^ convinced one or 
more Southern States that it lias already 
come. "^ 

Several States propose to retire from the 
Coufedcracy, and that justly alarms us. 
We come together to consTder what may 
be done to prevent it, and we are bound, in 
fidelity to ourselves and others, to take the 
measure of the whole magnitude of the 
danger. 

This irrepressible conflict has grown out 
of the Anglo-Saxon love of freedom. What 
that passion is, and how it was olfendcd by 



, the introduction of negro slaves, maybe 
read in the chronicles of the American Pro- 
vmccs, and especially^in the earnest, the 
I eloquent, and repeated remonstrances ad- 
dressed by the Colony of Virginia to the 
I Crown and Parliament of Great Britain 
against their introduction. 

But if the Anglo-Saxon loves liberty above 
all other men, he is not indifferent to gain 
and thrift, and is remarkable for his capacity 
of adaptation, whereby he takes advantage 
of any circumstances in which he finds him- 
self placed. And, accordingly, by the time 
tlie Colonies were prepared to throw ofi the 
British yoke, and to assume among the 
powers of the earth the separate and equal 
station to which the laws of nature and of 
nature's God entitled them, it had been dis- 
covered that the unwelcome workers, against 
whose introduction such earnest protests had 
been made, could be turned to profitable ac- 
count in the Southern States— that the Afri- 
can constitution was well adapted to la- 
bor in latitudes which alone could produce 
some of the great staples of life— and that 
the North, which could not employ them 
profitably, would be benefited by such 
employment as the South conld afford 
Considerations of humanity, also, as weH 
as the rights of private property, entered 
into the discussions of that day. What was 
best for an inferior race thrust unwiiliu-ly 
upon a superior ? That both should be free, 
or that the inferior should serve the su- 
I perior, and the superior be bound by the law 
of the relation to protect the inferior? If 
best for both races that the existing slavery ■ 
I should continue, then what was to be its 
I relation to the general Government ? IIow^ 
I should it be represented in the councils of 
the nation ? How far protected or dis- 
couraged by the poAvcr of the new Govern- 
ment ? Should jurisdiction to abolish it be 
granted to the Government, or reserved to 
the States and the people of the States? 
These were great questions, and, like all the 
questions of that day, were wisely settled 
The Northern States abolished their sla- 
very, and so gratified their innate love of 
i-reedom-butthey did it gradually, and so 
did not wound their love of guin. They 



eold out slavery to the South, and they re- 
ceived a full equivalent, not only in the 
price paid doAvn, but in the manufacturing 
and commercial prosperity which grew up 
from the productions of slave labor. 

When the Constitution came to be formed, 
some of the Korthern States still held slaves, 
but several had abolished the institution, 
and it must have been a[)parent that natural 
causes would force it ultimatelj' altogether 
upon the South. The love of liberty was 
as intense as ever, and as strong at the South 
as at the North, and the love of gain was 
couinion also to both sections. Here were 
two master-passions to be adjusted under 
circumstances of the greatest delicacy. 
They were adjusted, and the great questions 
of the time were settled in the only manner 
possible. Concession and compromise — con- 
sideration for each other's feelings and in- 
terests, sacrifices of prejudices, forbearance 
and riioderation — these were the means by 
which the "more perfect union" was 
formed. j 

And what a work it was I If the Union j 
had never brouglit us a single blessing, the I 
Constitution of the United States would still | 
have been a magnificent monument to the ] 
unselfish patriotism of its founders. Not an ! 
alliance, merely, but a close and perfect «7i«(?H 
betwee^j peoples equally ambitious, equally | 
devoted to freedom, equally bent on better- j 
ing their condition, but separated by State i 
lines and jealous of State rights — one sec- 1 
tion seeking its prosperity under institutions 
which were to make every man a free man, 
the other under institutions which toler- 
ated negro slaver3\ Had the Constitution 
failed to work out the beneficent results 
intended, here was an instance of human 
effort to do good — an effort to restrain and 
regulate two natural passions, and to compel 
them to co-operate in blessing mankind — 
which would forever have challenged the 
admiration of all good and thoughtful men. 
But it did not fail, thank God. It has made 
us a great and prosperous nation, and the 
admiration of the world for the ?noiwes of 
the founders is swallowed up in wonder at 
the success of their work. 

But all this the "irrepressible conflict" 



ignores. The passion for liberty, spurning 
the restraints imposed, has burucS out all 
memories of the compromise and the com- 
pact in those Northern comnnmilies, which, 
under the false name of Liberty Bills, ob- 
struct the execution of the bargain. What 
part of the purposes of the founders are the 
underground railroads intended to promoted 
Whence come these excessive sensibilities 
that cannot bear a few slaves in a remote 
territory until the white people establish a 
Constitution ? What does that editor or 
preacher know of the Union, • and of the 
men who made it, who habitually reviles 
and misrt;|5resents the Southern people, and 
excites the ignorant and thoughtless in our 
midst to hate and persecute them ? What 
has become of our glad and willing obedi- 
ence to the Supreme Court as the final ex- 
positor of the compact ? 

Be not deceived. Let me not prophecy 
smooth things, and cry peace when there is 
no peace. Let the truth be spoken, be 
heard, be pondered, if we mean to save the 
Union. The conflict boasts that it is irre- 
pressible. It allies itself with equal readi- 
ness to religion and infidelity. It enlists alj 
our passions, good and bad. It makes 
common cause with the champions of free- 
dom the world over, and with the promoters 
of insurrection, riot and discord at home. 
With Fkeedom; inscribed on the banner it 
bears, it tramples under foot the guarantees 
of freedom contained in the Constitution 
and laws. ^ 

How is it to be repressed ? Governmental 
administration cannot subdue it. That has 
been tried for several successive periods, 
and the conflict has waxed hotter and hotter. 
Will the jjext Administration be more suc- 
cessful? Hoping for the best it can do, 
what right have j^ou or I to anticipate that 
the man who has been elected will prove 
fecreant to the maxims that made him Pres- 
ident '? Can trade and commerce subdue 
it V Look at the votes of Boston, Philadel- 
phia and Pittsburgh. The manufacturers 
and merchants are the governing classes in 
these cities. They are intelligent and quick 
to discover their interests. They have 
weighed and measured the Southern trade, 



i.T.6. ':hen have voted against the Southern peo- 
ple. But what if they had not — what if, like 
'he city of New York, they had voted against 
the conflict, only to be overruled by the 
country counties? Commercial cities can- 
not repress the conflict, if the people of the 
interior lend it their sympathies. No, no; 
there is reason in the boast that the States 
shall all become free. There is good grouncl 
•o apprcliend the extinction of property in 
'laves. All new England has decreed it. 
The great Status of New York and Ohio 
have repeated, again and again, the decree. 
Pennsylvania seems to have sanctioned it. 
The Northwestern States stand for the 
present committed to it. 

What hope is left for the Union ? Is there 
a man in this assembly who deems that this 
conflict can go on and the Union last? If 
tliere be, that man is beside himself — he has 
lost his wits. I will reason with no such 
man. But, though few may believe that the 
Union can long endure the shock of the con- 
flict, yet many people think that freedom — 
absolute, unconditional, universal freedom — 
is so great a boon, and negro slaver)- so great 
ai'eproach and evil, that the whole influence 
■ of a good man's life and conduct should be 
directed to promote the one and suppress 
the other — even though, as a consequence, 
the slave States should be driven out of the 
Union. This is the prevalent distemper 
of the public mind. " Who can miuistcr to I 
a mind diseased ?" 

Fellow-citizens, I profess no ability in this 
regard, but my mouth is open, and I will 
utter some of the thoughts that press up 
from the heart to the lips. 

When, under the articles of confederation 
which carried us through our Revtjlutionary 
war, States had grown jealous, unfraternal, 
disobedient, and the general Government 
liad proved itself too weak to suppress con- 
flicts that were arising, the people took the 
remedy into their own hands, called a Con- 
vention, and formed a stronger Government. 
The call of the Convention, the election of 
deputies, the State Conventions which fol- 
lowed, all served to engage the public mind, 
and to direct it to the common danger and 
the possible remedy. Thus the popular 



mind prepared itself to receive with appro- 
bation the Constitution that Avas formed, and 
impending dangers were averted. 

History is said to be philosophy teaching 
by examples. Let us be instructed by this 
example. As we Pennsylvanians were the 
first to abolish slavery, let us be the first to 
move for the salvation of the Union. Under 
the amendatory clause of the Constitution, 
Congress is bound to call a general Conven- 
tion on the application of the Legi-slature of 
two-thirds of the States. Our Legislature 
will assemble next month. Let us petition 
them to demand the Convention. Gocjd ex- 
amples, like bad ones, are contagious. Per- 
haps one and another of the Northern and 
Southern States may do the like, until the 
requisite number have concurred, and then 
Ave will have a National Convention to con- 
sider the evils and dangers of the day, and 
to devise remedies which, it may be hoped, 
shall prove as salutary as those of 1787. 
And now, as then, the progress of these 
measures will awaken inquiry and thought- 
fulness in the masses — will call off" their 
minds from the petty politics of the day 
and from the mischievous agitation of slavery 
questions to the grand problem of how we 
can render this glorious Union perpetual. 

In what form and to what extent the power 
of the general Government shoukT be in- 
creased is not for me to indicate ; but with 
the confessions of President Buchanan and 
Attorney General Black before us, that the 
Government, as now constituted, is unable 
to prevent or punish secession, or to sup- 
press the proud conflict that disturbs our 
peace and boasts itself irrepressible, have I 
not a right "to assume that the Government 
needs to be strengthened ? Have I not a 
right to assume that a Government which 
was all sufficient for the country fifty years 
ago, Avhen soil, and climate, and State 
sovereignty could be trusted to regulate the 
spread of slavery, is insufficient to-day, 
when every upstart politician can stir 
the people to mutiny against the domestic 
institutions of our Southern neighbors — 
when ribald jests of seditious editors, like 
GREEI.EY and Beecder can sway Legis- 
latures and popular rotes against the 



handiwork of Washington and Madison — 
when the scurrilous libels of such a book as 
Helper's become a favorite campaign doc- 
ument, and are accepted by thousands as 
law and gospel both — when jealousy and 
hate have killed out all our fraternal feel- 
ings for those who were born our brethren, 
and who have done US' no harm ? The tra- 
ditions of the elders lingered in the genera- 
tions which immediately succeeded the 
adoption of the Constitution, and their pas- 
sion for freedom, just as strong as ours, was 
cliastened into loyalty to the Union, and 
veneration for the rights of the States. The 
Constitution, Avhich was strong enough to 
govern such men, is too weak to restrain us 
who have outgrown the ijrave and moderate 
wisdom that excited no irrepressible con- 
flicts between brethren, but taught them to 
dwell together in unity. I would make it 
strong enough to restrain the madness of 
our day. 

And let the people consider the motives 
for preserving the Union. • They Avould be 
brought directly to these by the debates of 
the Convention, and by the antecedent and 
subsequent debates. I can suggest only 
some of them. 

First, our name and place and power as 
one of the nations of the earth. Are not 
these worth preserving ? In eighty years 
we have matched the greatness that Rome 
and England were centuries in attaining. 
What may be done in the next eighty ? I 
heard a sagacious statesmen say, about three 
years ago, that in twenty years from that 
time, if we kept together, we would drive 
England from all the markets of the Avorld 
as a first class trader. They were words of 
cheer, but there was the inevitable if. In 
what market we shall rival England, or 
even the pettiest kingdom of the earth, after 
dissolution of the Union, that statesman and 
no other has ventured to prectict. 

See what prosperity would come to us of 
the North in the process of the grand ri- 
valry predicted by that statesman. Manu- 
factures and navigation have built up the 
greatness of England, and tliey would do the 
same for us as a nation, and for our section 
of the nation. Manufacturing has already 



made us great. In no one respect are the 
rise and progress of our country so re- 
markable as in its manufactures. The 
narrow-minded English statesman who 
would not have us manufacture even a "hob 
nail," could he be carried alive through the 
factories of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, or 
Lowell, would, to be consistent with himself, 
curse the false gods who had inspired his 
unreasonable wish, and hasten to die again. 
We shall neoer need to depend again 
on any foreign ruUion for a fabric 
that can he inade of cotton^ iron or 
wood. Thus far, at least, we have 
come. And what cities and towns and 
railroads and canals have we built up in 
our progress ! How much personal wealth 
and social happiness have we created — what 
additions to our population — whataccretions 
in the value of oiir farms and minerals — 
what industry have we stimulated and 
rewarded— what commerce have we won ! 
Think of these things, fellow-countrymen — 
con them over, one by one — dissect and 
analyze each fact — trace its connections and ' 
consequences — and then, when you combine 
them all in one glowing picture of national 
prosperity, remember that COTTON, the 
pi'oduct of f^lave labor, has been one of the 
indispensable elements of all this prosperity. 
More — it must be an indispensable element of 
all our future prosperity. I say it must be. 
The world cannot and will not live without 
cotton. There is not a matron in all the 
Union that can clothe her family or herself 
without it. Nor can England do without 
our cotton. Her mills and ours would rot, 
and her operatives and ours would starve, 
if the negroes did not raise cotton. Mano- 
mit them and they will never raise another 
crop. They need the authority of a master 
and the eye of an overseer to com.pel and 
direct them to the duties to the cotton plstet 
which must be rendered at the right season 
precisely, or the crop is lost. 

And thus it happens that the Providence 
of that Good Being who has watched over 
us from the beginning, and saved us from 
external foes, has so ordered our internal 
relations as to make n«^jro slavery an 
incalculable blessing to us and to tl*e 



10 



peopTc of Great Britaiiix I say to, us;\ 
for I do not enter into the question -whether | 
^iie institution be an evil to the people ! 
of t'ne Southern States. That is their 
concern, not ours. We have nothing to ' 
do ■with it; .and to obtrude our opinions '. 
upon the people of sovereign States con- 
c-erning their domestic institutions Avould ' 
be sheer impertinence. But do you not 
see and feel how good it was for us to ! 
hand over our slaves to our friends of the j 
South — how good it was for us that they 
have employed them in raising a staple for 
our manufacturers — how wise it was to so 
adjus*: the compromises of the -Constitution 
that we could live in union with them and 
reap the signal advantages to which I have 
adverted ? We consigned them to no 
heathen thrall, but to Christian men, pro- 
fessing .the same faith with us — speaking the 
same language — reading the golden rule in no 
one-sided and distorted shape, but as it is 
recorded — a rule to slaves as well as masters. 
Tii:.< allusion to the golden rule, reminds 
■me of an objection which will be urged to 
much that I have advanced. It will be said 
tiiat slavery is a sin against God, and, there- 
fore, that all reasons drawn from our ma- 
terial interests for favoring or abetting it 
luusl go for nothing. 

If it be a sin, I agree there is an end to 
my argument; but what right has tlie Aboli- 
tionist to pronou'nce it a sin? I say Aboli- i 
tionis!^, because the pastor of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, in a 
sermon preached within a week, defined 
an Abolitionist to be one who holds that 
slavery is a sin. I accept the definition, and 
according to it many of our best Christian 
people must be accounted Abolitionists; for 
it is astonishing how extensively the re- 
ligious mind of the iSTorth has admitted into 
itself the suspicion, not to say conviction, 
tiiat slaveholding is a sin. If a sin, then 
it is a violation of some divine law, for sin 
iB the transgression of the law. 

Now, I deny that any such law has ever 
been revealed. The burden of showing it 
\s, on him who alleges it, and when it is 
^liown, I agree it shall rule out all that has 
t>ecn said or can be said for a Union founded 



on slavery. I bind myself never to raise 
my voice again in favor of such a Union. 
But, so far from any such law l)eing plainly 
written for our instruction, whoever will 
study the Patriarchal and Levitical institu- 
tions, will see the principle of human bond- 
age and of property in man divifiely sanc- 
tioned, if not divinely ordained; and in all 
the sayings of our Saviour wc hear no 
injunction for the suppression of a slavery 
which existed under His eyes, while He 
delivered inany maxims and principles, 
which^ like the golden rule, enter right 
into and regulate the relation. So do the 
writings of Paul abound with regulations 
of the relation, but not with injunctions for 
its suppression. If we go to the most ac- 
credited commentators, or consult divines 
really wise and good in our own niidst — or, 
what is better, study and search the Scrip- 
tures for ourselves — we shall fail to find a 
law which, fairly interpreted and applied, 
justifies any man in asserting, in or out of 
the pulpit, that the negro slavery of the 
United States is sinful. What right, then, 
I ask again, has the Abolitionist to cheat 
tender consciences into hostility to an in- 
stitution on which our Union is founded 
in part ? (?ood people say. We do not 
wish to disturb slavery where it exists by 
local law, but believing it to be sinful and 
inexpedient, we will not submit to its ex- 
tension, nor assist to restore the fugitive to 
nis master. Such people soon come to con- 
ceive that the more unfriendly they can feel 
towards slaverj-, the more harsh speeches 
they make about slaveholders, the more 
they help on the irrepressil)le conflict, the 
better will they recommend themselves to 
God. In some churches anti-slavery senti- 
ments have become essential to good stand- 
ing. According to some ecclesiastical 
councils, it would seem that the great duty 
of the American Christian is to war with 
his neighbor's property, and, if oppor- 
tunity presents, to help steal and hide it. 

Alas ! alas ! for the times upon which wc 
have fallen. 

We must arouse ourselves and re-assert 

the rights of the slaveholder, and add such 

i guarantees to our Constitution as will pro- 



11 



tcct his property from the spoliation of re-, 
ligious bigotry and persecution, or else we 
must give up our Constitution and Union. 
Events are placing the alternative plainlj' 
before us — Constitutional Union, and liberty 
according to American law ; or else, extinc- 
tion of slave property, negro freedom, disso- 
lution of the Union, and anarclvy and con- 
fusion. 

Can any man, even though his mind 
has been poisoned by the sophisms of in- 
fidels and Abolitionists, seriously contem- 
plate the alternative Mith composure and 
indifference ? We hear it said, Let South 
Carolina go out of the Union peaceably. 
I say let her go peaceably, if she go at all; 
but why should South Carolina be driven 
out of the Union by an irrepressible conflict 
about slavery ? Other States will be sure 
to follow sooner or later. The work of dis- 
integration, once fairly established, will not 
end with South Carolina, nor even Avith all 
the slave States. Already we see it an- 
nounced on the floor of Congress that the 
city of New York,tired of her connections 
with Puritan New England anjd the fanati- 
cal interior of her ovrn State, will improve 
the opportunity to set up for herself, and 
throw open her magnificent port to the un- 
restricted commerce of the Avorld. 

Let us be wise in time. Our resolutions 
are soothing and encouraging in their tone, 
and this vast assemblage is symptomatic of 
returning health in the public mind; but 
popular meetings and fair-spoken resolutions 
are not going to save the Union from de- 
struction. The people must act, and act 
promptly and efficiently. Let them show 
the South that the heart of the great State 
of Pennsylvania is sound still. It is said 
that the late elections do not commit Penn- 
sylvania unalterably to the mischievous 
conflict. I am willing to believe it. I hope 



it 'is so. I hope the events of the win- 
ter and cur future elections will prove it. 
Then let Pennsylvania appeal to the 
South to stand by us a little longer, till 
we have proved, not by fair words, but by 
deeds, that we will arrest the irrepressible 
coniflct — tliat we are not ready to give up 
constitutional liberty for licentious liberty — ■ 
that we will not sacrifice all the memories 
of the past and all the hopes of the future, 
for negro freedom ; no, not for negro fi-ee- 
dom even — for though we tear down this 
fair fabric, we make no negro fre^ — but for 
a vain and mad attempt at negi'o fi'eedom. 
That is the poor, the abortive, the absurd, 
the wicked purpose for which we are ex- 
pected to sacrifice our sacred inheritance. 
God forbid it ! 

Here on this consecrated spot of earth, 
where the foundations were laid of the best 
Government the world ever saw, let us re- 
new our vows to the Union and send saluta- 
tions to our brethren. Talk not of seces- 
sion — go ilot rashly out of the L^nion — dim 
no star of our glorious flag ; give us time to 
place ourselves right in respect to your 
"peculiar institution," and to roll back the 
cloud that now obscures, for the moment, 
our devotion to the Union as it is. Speak 
thus to the Southern States, and follow our 
words by fitting deeds, and Pennsylvania 
can stop secession, or cure it if it occurs. 
We can win back any State that may stray 
off, if only we can prove our own loyalty to 
the Constitution and Union as our fathers 
formed them. 

And would it not be a proud page in the 
history of Pennsylvania that should record 
the rescue of the American Union from 
impending ruin, by prompt, generous, 
united action of the people of Pennsylvania ? 
That great glory may be ours. Let us grasp 
it ere it be forever too late. 



EESOLtJTIOJSrs 



DEMOCRATIC STATE COKYENTIOK. 



The State Convention of the Democracy 
for the nomination of candidates for Gov- 
ernor and Judge of the Supreme Court, as- 
sembled in the House of Representatives at 
Harrisburg, on the 17th of June, 18G3, and 
unanimously adopted the following resolu- 
tions. 

PREAMBLE, 

That we approve the resolutions, upon 
the state of the country, passed by the House 
of Representatives of this Commonwealth 
on the 13th day of April last, which are as 
follows : 

Iiesolved, by ike Senate and House of Rep- 
resentatives of the Commomoealth of Penn- 
sylvania in General Assembly met, That as 
our institutions are assailed by an armed 
rebellion on one side, which is being met by 
the sword, and on the other by unconstitu- 
tional acts of Congress and startling usurpa- 
tions of power by the Executive, which we 
have seen by experiment can be corrected 
by the ballot-box, policy as well principle 
requires that our people shall await the pro- 
cess of reform which is slow but sure, and 
refrain from all unlawful and unconstitu- 
tional acts, which have already brought tez'- 
rjble calamities upon the country, whilst 
they invoke the aid of all patriotic men to 
assist m averting the evils that threaten our i 
free institutions. 



Seco7id. That this General Assembly de- 
clares that this State has ever been, is now. 
and will remain in future, devotedly true 
to the Constitution of the United States 
and to the federal Government established 
by it, and is determined to maintain them 
with her utmost power against both domes- 
tic and foreign foes, and to this end we de- 
clare that all possible constitutional efforts 
should be made to suppress the present re- 
bellion. 

Third. That this General Assembly re- 
cognizes a manifest difference between the 
adminis^.ration of the government and the 
government itself— the one is transitory, 
limited in duration to that period of time 
for which the officers elected by the people 
are charged with the conduct of the same : 
the other is permanent, intended by its 
founders to endure forever. 

.Fourth. That this General Assembly, in 
the exercise of its rights to difter with the 
Federal Executive, enters its solemn pi'otest 
against the proclamation of the President 
of the United States, dated the first day of 
January, one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three, by which he assumes to eman- 
cipate slaves in certain States, holding,, the 
same to be unwise, unconstitutional and 
void. 
Fifth. That this General Assembly, oa 



14 



behalf of the people of this Commonwealth, 
declares its determined opposition to a sys- 
tem of emancipation by the States upon 
compensation to be made out of the trea- 
sury of the United States, as burthensome 
upon the people, unjust in its very nature, 
and wholly without warrant of the consti- 
tution. 

Sixth. That this General Assembly de- 
clares that the power which has recently 
been assumed by the President of the United 
States, whereby, under the guise of military 
necessity, he has proclaimed and extended 
martial law over States where war did not 
exist, and has suspended the writ of habeaa 
corpus, is unwarranted by the Constitution, 
and its tendency is to subordinate civil to 
military authority, and to subvert our sys- 
tem of free government. 

Seventh.. That this General Assembly 
deems it proper further to declare that it, 
together with all the truly loyal people of 
the State, would hail with pleasure and de- 
light any manifestation of a desire on the 
part of the seceded States to return to their 
allegiance to the government of the Union, 
and wotild in such an event cordially and 
earnestly co-operate with them in-the resto- 
ration of peace and the procurements of 
such proper guarantees as would give secu- 
rity to all their interests and rights. 

Eighth. That the soldiers composing our 
armies merit the warmest thanks of the 
nation. Their country called, and nobly 
did they respond. Living, they shall know 
a nation's gratitude ; wounded, a nation's 
care ; and dying, they shall live in our 
raemoi'ios, and monuments shall be raised 
to teach posterity to honor the patriots and 
heroes who offered their lives at their coun- 
try's' altar. Their widows and orphans 
shall be adopted by the nation, to be watched 
over and cared for as objects truly worthy 
a nation's guardianship. 

Ninth. That Pennsylvania will adhere to 
the Constitution and tlie Union as tlie best, 
it may be the last, hope of popular freedom, 
and for all wrongs which may have been 
committed or evils which may exist will 



seek redress, under the Constitution and 
within the Union, by the peaceful but 
powerful agency of the suffrage of a free 
people. 

Tenth. That this General Assembly hails 
with pleasure and hope the manifestations of 
conservative sentiment among the people of 
the Northern States in their late elections, 
and regard the same as the earnest of a 
good purpose upon their part to co-eperate 
with all other loyal citizens in giving secu- 
rity to the rights of every section and main- 
taining the Union and Constitution as they 
were ordained by the founders of the re- 
public. 

Eleventh. That in the judgment of this 
General Assetuby, whenever it becomes 
practicable to obtain a convention of all or 
three-fourths of the States, such bod}"- should 
be convened for the purpose of proposing 
such Amendments to the Federal Constitu- 
tion as experience has prove<:l to be neces- 
sary to maintain that .instrument in the 
spirit and meaning intended by its founders, 
and to provide against future convulsions 
and wars. 

Twelfth. That this General Assembly con- 
demns and denounces the faults of the ad- 
ministration and the encroachments of the 
Abolitionists ; it does also most thoroughly 
condemn and denounce the heresy of seces- 
sion as unwarranted by the Constitution 
and destructive alike of the security and 
perpetuity of the government and of the 
peace and liberty of the people ; and it 
does hereby most solemnly declare that the 
people of this State are unalterably op- 
posed to any division of the Union, and will 
persistently exert their wliole influence and 
power under the Constitution to maintain 
and defend it. 

Thirteenth. That the laws of this State 
must be maintained and enforced, and that 
it is duty of the constituted authorities of 
the State to see to it that, by all constitu- 
tional means, this iiidispen.sablc end shall 
be attained. 

Fourteenth. That copies of these resolu- 
tions be forwarded to the President of the 



15 



United States, to the Governois of the seve- President of the United States a power 
ral States acknowledging the Federal autho- ^ hitherto wholly unknown in America and 
rity, and to our Senators and Representa- ! never exerci.'^ed in Europe or Asia, except by 
tives in Congress. i the most despotic monarchs, namely : the 

And in addition thereto, and as a further | power to arrest free citizens for the expres- 
expression of our views upon public affairs, | sion of their honest opinions on public 
do resolve as follows: | affairs ; and that the President has not only 

Resolved, That we again renew our vows j presumed to exercise this power himself 
of fidelity to the Constitution of the United i with the moderation and merer which his 
States, the great charter for which our | own nature might prompt, but has dele- 
fathers struggled and fought, and which gated it to many subordinates, and they 



was established, as they themselves ex- 
pressed it, " to form a more perfect Union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, 
provide for the common defense, promote the 
general welfare, and secure the blessings of 
liberty to ourselves,and posterity. 

Rtsolved, That inasmuch as the Constitu- 
tion embodies the only guarantees we have 
for public liberty and private right, as with- 
out it w<^ can have no hope of protection 
from bloodshed, from spoliation and anarchy 



again to others in every part of the countrv, 
until its hideous presence is seen and felt all 
over the land. ^ 

Resolved, That among the numerous offi- 
cers to whom the President has given this 
terrible power above the laws and above the 
people, there must, in the nature of things, 
be a large proportion who are totally in- 
capable of wielding it either honestly or 
wisely —low politicians filled with partisan 
rancor, knaves who do not care for justice. 



— the man who sneers at "the Constitution as j and ruffians who dehght in trampling it 
it !s" proves himself to be deficient in the first j under foot; and, therefore, we are not sur- 



prised to learn that the worthiest men have 
been torn from their families, judges knocked 
down on the bench, ministers of the gospels 
imprisoned in loathsome dungeons, and 
respectable women treated with a brutality 
Lsvhich it would be indecent even to name — 



element of patriotism ; and anj^ officer of the 
State 01' Federal Government who swears to 
support the Constitution, and afterwards, 
with that oath on his conscience, wiJfullj' 
violates it, is wholly unworthy of public 
contidence. 

Resolced, That among the rights whicli": and all this, in many cases, without a pre- 
the Constitution provides to every citizen, | tense that the victims were guilty even of a 
is that of being secure in his life, liberty 1 political offence, much less of any crime 
and property, so that he caunot be deprived i against the laws. 

of either without due process of law, a fair , Resolved, Tiiat free government cannot 
trial by a competent judge and a jury of his \ exist without a free press, and the Consti- 
Rjighbors, with witnesses to confront him j tution of .this State, as well as that of the 
and counsel to defend hira. This is so just i Unit^ States, has declared that it shall b 



jn.itself, so necessary to the happiness of 
the people for whom all government is made, 
and so plainly wi-itten down in the Federa- 
Constitution, and in all the State Constitu- 
tions, that any person who can misunder- 
stand it has not, in our opinion, the 
jnent&l capacity which fits hitn for public 
station. 

Resolved^ That we have heard with in- 
tense alarm and deep indignation that some 
<fff eur political opponents claim for the 



free. Those persons therefore in office or 
out of office, who attempt to suppress books 
and newspapers by violence, are the enemits 
of this government and ought to be them- 
selves suppressed. 

Resolved, That we heartily thank the lien- 
hearted Democracj'' of Ohio, for the manly 
vindication they have given to the Constitu- 
tion against the great crime committed upon 
it in the arrest and deportation of Clement 
L. Vallandighani ; and we assure them cf 



16 



our cordial sympathy in the great struggle 
they are making for their undoubted rights. 

Resolved, That the plain duty of the 
Chief Magistrate of this Commonwealth 
requires him to use whatever powcr.^ the 
law hr.s placed in his hands to protect the 
State and the people from lawless outrages, 
come from what quarter they may, and no 
man is fit to be Governor of this State who 
will cy)nsent to hold his own liberties and 
let tbc people hold theirs, at the mere will 
of the Federal Executive. 

Resolved, That the Democracy of Penn- 
sylvania ever has been true to the cause of 
the Union. It was in the name, and for 
the sake of the Union, that our party was 
made ; that we denounce the least intima- 
tijn. that the Democratic party entertains 
now, or ever has entertained, or ever can 
entertain, the slightest sympathy with the 
present gigantic rebellion, or with traitors 
irj arms against the Government, or would 
ever consent to peace upon any terms in- 
volving a dismemberment of the Union, as 
iitteriy unjust; and in proof of this, we 
point with exultation to the lavish contribu- 
tions to the war in blood and treasure, 
hcrctofoi'e, and now being made by the 
hundreds of thousands of Democratic citi- 
znns, who were among the first to fly to the 
rescue of the Union, and peril their lives in 
its defence. 

Me-sjli'ed, That as the true friends of the 



Union, and feeling a piofound anxiety for 
its fate, we claim, and will exercise the 
right to consider, discuss, ascertain and 
urge in becoming terms upon the people and 
the constituted authorities, whatever mea- 
sui'es will, in our judgment, be most likely 
to place and keep the whole nation and 
Union together under one federal govern- 
ment. 

Resolved, That when this war began we 
had the solemn pledge of the Federal admin- 
istration and of the party which placed it in 
power, as expressed in the resolution passed 
by Congress on July 22d, liSGl, that it "is 
not waged on their part in any spirit of 
oppression or for any purpose of conquest 
or subjugation or purpose of overthrowing 
or interfering with the rights or established 
institutions of those States ; but to defend 
and nip^intain the supremacy of the Consti- 
tution and to preserve the Union, with all 
the dignity, equality and rights of the 
several States, unimpaired ; and that as 
soon as these objects are accomplished, the 
war ought to cease."' But the Federal 
administration, acting under the influence 
of a small faction of ultra Abolitionists- 
always opposed to the Union and without 
the consent of the great mass of the people, 
has totally changed its ground, avowing 
and proclaiming its purpose to be wholly 
dilFerent. and thus it has greatly allayed omv 
just hope of peace, 

LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



012 026 469 2 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



llllil'llii lliliiiliril liiiliiM 

012 026 469 2 



.^ 



-<=^' 



pH8J 



